Guild Wars 2

I think rangers have pretty crappy condition removal overall. I mean, all of our condi removal options comes with weird drawbacks.

• EB transfer conditions to the pet, and since the pet is part of us, that means we still suffer from conditions.
• SotF forces us to use utilities not because we want to use the utility, but rather to have it clear conditions. If we use the utility for the utility itself, we stand there without condition removal option
• Signet of Renewal (active) again puts conditions on the pet

So, one could argue we got it covered pretty well when clearing conditions, but at the same time we’re the only class that still suffers from them.

Things are looking better with HoT, at least for SotF because now TU will also clear conditions if I have understood things correctly.
EB is def. in need of a buff though, to be worthy of GM status. Either that, or it should be moved down a tier (and possibly moved to another trait line).
I do like Heimskarls suggestion above, that would make it worthy of GM status.

That synergy was something it only had for the last month(s) or so, and was hardly the reason you took HiPS in the first place. It was a decent trait, that should’ve been merged, not removed.

I would very much like some sort of cleanse in the BM line. Perhaps a trait that clears 1-2 condition(s) per ally (and the ranger of course) in a 360 radius around the pet and/or the ranger when you swap pet. It would hardly be overpowered, but a decent support skill.

I can’t imagine playing pvp without ways to clear conditions. More options, that are good in different ways would be welcome.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

OGDeadHead.8326:

Rhyse.8179:

I use ‘Guard’ in PVE to solo ridiculous things, like champions with large numbers of adds and dungeons. Traited for shout cooldown, you can give your pet near-permanent Protection, which lets something like a Bear tank anything in the game.

I’m pretty sure I could provide a decent number of encounters where your perma-protected bear will go down fast…

Seriously, I’m pretty sure anyone could point to multiple encounters where anyone/thing is downed in seconds… A Bear with Protection is going to last a lot longer than most.

True. Keywords here though: “Bear tank anything”. No, it won’t.

Rangers have too many utilities that are used more for the traits that trigger when you use them, instead of their own effects. Guard is the no#1 ‘offender’ in this list, others worth mention are Muddy Terrain and Sharpening Stone because they can trigger SotF.

I’d say the OP got the list just right. Removing cast time on skills that are in no way game changing in such a way that “you better dodge/interrupt this skill or you’ll die” are just a small first step. Guard shouldn’t have a cast time at all, Muddy Terrain could also be instant cast, or at the very least much faster cast time than now.
Muddy Terrain should pulse Immobilize, and/or have a bigger radius.

Ah, I can’t even go over all the utilites. The majority are crap for one reason or another.

Rhyse.8179:

I use ‘Guard’ in PVE to solo ridiculous things, like champions with large numbers of adds and dungeons. Traited for shout cooldown, you can give your pet near-permanent Protection, which lets something like a Bear tank anything in the game.

I’m pretty sure I could provide a decent number of encounters where your perma-protected bear will go down fast…

This thread will be locked I guess, like others before it…

Bumping my own question, in case someone think they know the answer to it?

OGDeadHead.8326:

Q: Does the #1 on every weapon count as a “weapon skill” – meaning it would be possible to waste this if you accidently use an autoattack first thing you do on weapon swap?

?

I really hope Anet makes every single trait something you would really want to have, because they’re that good. It should feel like you really want all the traits, but have to pick one, and feel the loss when not being able to pick the other traits at the same time.
They should never make you feel like it doesn’t matter which trait you pick since they’re all useless, and it should also never be like one trait is so much better than the others, that you won’t even consider them.

I really hope they actually go over each and every trait and think “hey, is this an interesting and useful trait at all, or do we need to change it completely?”

I’m rather amazed at the extreme slow pace they’ve shown when it comes to change things around.

PlagueEphlik.3067:

The hotjoin system could be done so much better but because its just hotjoin they dont care. Its not even good practice because in the state its in you get players who play it like this more or less

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_icdSkqE3A

Rofl! Good one!

:D

Sebrent.3625:

I’m going to wait to see how the numbers settle for Guardians and see if the Ranger traps revamp actually puts our traps on-par as they currently are not. I’ve never hit someone that hard from a single hit from my traps.

But we got a pet…

Seriously though, I think we can fully expect to see ranger traps going through a major redesign. Anything else would be seriously astonishing. Like adding secondary effects to traps, like the Purification traps guardians are getting, that heals you and deals damage + blinds your opponent.

Just remove these buttons!

Even with these suggestions (and the coming buff), I still don’t like the trait tbh. It lacks something that even the increased chance can’t fix imho. It’s good that they merged it with sword skills and increased damage, and that’s the primary reason I’d consider it, not the block chance.
I think in order for it to be a little bit more interesting, something should happen when you block (or destroy) a projectile.
I think I would like it more if the projectiles were reflected, and I could go for an even lower chance if that were the case.
Or keep it, but add “on a succesful block, there’s a 25% chance the projectile will be reflected” or “on a succesful block, there’s a 25% chance the projectile will hit your nearest enemy within X range instead”.

Just a small reminder – remember it lies in Anets interest to make the new skills, traits and so on for the new elite specializations look extremely good. That’s a big selling point – you can’t afford not buying HoT and be left out from all the new good stuff.
Lots of things will be severely OP on release for sure, just to later be toned down.

I remember this fine little BM skill in GW1 ( to name but one):

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Feral_Aggression

Look at the current power of it, then look at the history and compare that with the original (preview and/or maybe at release, can’t remember). That little skill right there was indeed a selling point for me, to go and buy the expansion! And yeah, I mostly had a pet with me in GW1…

Helly.2597:

Fluffball.8307:

Your pet stance is not that important. You’re constantly spamming attack and return during fights.

I keep mine on aggressive because if I get overwhelmed, I’d rather have my pet attacking than doing nothing.

Appears its just a taste thing. I’ve always found that I’d rather have the pet keeping close to be unless I tell it to go somewhere. And keeping it on guard makes it easier to control exactly the non-activation skills like dog knockdowns and spider immobs. Also prevents pet from wandering into areas and just dying.

Having your pet on passive close to you most of the fight will allow for more control, sure. It will also mean a major loss in dps. I prefer having my pet dealing as much damage as possible, meaning I let it run on aggressive. Control it through F1 & F3.

I’ve seen so many videos of rangers that either a) have their pets on passive, not contributing to the fight at all, or b) players that forget they have pets, allowing them to die needlessly (forgetting to swap, for example).

Exactly what are we talking about here? The suggestion I don’t like is the one when you want your pet to dodge when you do. That’s a useless idea, and an idea that we’ve talked about so many times before. For anyone that plays ranger regulary, I can’t understand how someone thinks this would be a good idea?

If we’re talking about granting the pet evasion when we dodge, but that the pet doesn’t interrupt its current action, well fine, I wouldn’t mind that. Don’t think they’ll give us that though.

Still think that evasion on F3 is by far the best method of doing this. Possibly also giving the pet that new boon that ignores condition effects for X seconds.

Wondrouswall.7169:

For simpler uses, the option so the pet dodges when the player does.

No thank you. Absolutely not, that would be horrible. I can’t believe why ppl suggest this time and time again.

I think it would be more important to add evasion to F3 with some sort of ICD so it can’t be abused. How about evasion, on F3, for… 2-3 seconds, ICD 15-20 seconds (ICD resets upon pet swap)?

Nice!

/15…

No wonder this comes up every second month or so, Anet sure have made it hard to find if you don’t know about it. Naming it Lock Autotarget is rather weird.

Still makes me giggle when I see all the suggestions that are all of them both cumbersome and slow in comparison to binding a key to “Lock Autotarget”, like the esc-key, click a blank space on screen and so on so forth…

Wondrouswall.7169:

enemy tells are slow, predictable, and can be learned.

And that’s the issue right there. Sword #1, with auto attack on, won’t allow you to react to things good enough, unless the mob/enemy you’re fighting is slow, predictable and/or you’ve learned what it/(s)he does.

If you rather like the playstyle to react to things happening, sword#1 is a major pita (again, with auto attack enabled).
I’m not sure if the “stick to the target” is that necessary, it’s not hard to follow your opponent around if it comes to that, anyway. When I play with the GS, I dance around my opponents all the time, making it difficult and confusing for them to hit me at all. Vs pve mobs, you can move around them, making them more or less constantly miss their attacks while I attack from the sides/from behind.
Sword #1 won’t allow me to do that nearly as efficient (unless using sword #3 / dagger #4).

Please up the base speed of every profession by 25% (read: Make Signet of the Hunt movement speed baseline across the board).

Moving around with normal speed feels incredibly slow.

Thanks.

More cleave from pets other than drakes would be most welcome.

StickerHappy.8052:

Taneru.2736:

Reeeeeeef Drake.
Taunt and confusion, oh my.

Too bad pets dont have condi damage… It will tick for 100… Ohmy…

Stack might on the pet then. Full stack + expertise training = 1000+ condition damage for your pet.

+1 for the looks – nice work there!

Considering the fact that rangers have so many skills and traits that puts the bad effect(s) on “the other part of us” (pet), at least the cooldown of abilities like SA really ought to be greatly reduced, since we still get punished, just not directly. Remember that the class is balanced around a living, working pet.

I’m amazed that they didn’t add something like this to Hide in Plain sight:

“Applies camouflage when you are disabled – your pet is stunned for 15 seconds"
or
““Applies camouflage when you are disabled – your pet starts to burn”

;)

Maesto.9103:

Next one. Have fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuJ4NiqN3M4

Nice vid, and I really like the music.

As for the build – I think you really need more poison pressure!

A complete overhaul is what I want. Forget anything about how they work now, and their current effects. Something completly different, and I might take consider them.

Q: Does the #1 on every weapon count as a “weapon skill” – meaning it would be possible to waste this if you accidently use an autoattack first thing you do on weapon swap?

I don’t play engineer, never had. I have encountered the infamous turret build in pvp several times. Just wanna say they nerfed the build to oblivion. I never liked the idea of letting every single condition affect turrets, like they do now.

Heck Anet, you could have started with the suggestion made by Tron Jeremy – let the burning condition affect turrets. You could have started with that, and watched how things would evolve from there. Especially since you guys have always said you want to take small steps when it comes to balancing things…

A bit faster projectile speed of Throw Torch would be nice. Revealed on Bonfire?

abomally.2694:

Maybe your overlay is causing problems with the game. Try GW2 without the overlay.

Then it would cause issues with both his GW2 accounts, would it not, since he’s trying with two different GW2 accounts on the very same computer.

Rangers are far from their former glory when in comes to interrupting, and I don’t see that that’s about to change coming HoT.

robertul.3679:

Really 900 range is this a kittening joke?? 1200 would be reasonable to a point but 900 makes them useless.
Forcing people to go mortar cuz it has been useless since launch by nerfing grenade into the ground is one of the dumbest things ever.

I get a slight feeling of deja vu here, thinking of ranger shortbow nerf…

borya.2964:

send your pet somewhere and taunt your traget from stealth

That could be an interesting mechanic, true, because it will give us the ability to pull enemies to a specific location.

…or Shadowstep → AOE special ability depending on pet family!
;)

Sebrent.3625:

I honestly don’t think we need any other way to give our pets Fury. We have the Horn, now several other traits, and fortifying bond. Our pets should be fairly solid in that area.

Shadowstep → AOE knockdown!

Talking about the actual skill Guard, and not the additional benefits you gain from it through traits – it sucks.

I really like the shadowstep idea that Heimskarl talks about. I’d build upon that idea with the ability to swap place with your pet, as a secondary function of Guard. Now that could start to make this skill really interesting – and fun.

naphack.9346:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBMhFakRleVrYxnFiWEoIItuw8QgXTdfbXtUeVVUbF-TJxGABAcKAy9JAwUZAW2fAA

LOL
brb trolling the next hotjoin

Come back with reports plz!

Protect me getting taunt – yes please! Feels better to put the taunt ability on that skill imho. Would be nice to get a taunt ability on a skill, and not only through a trait. I think taunt in general fits a pet class like the ranger very nicely.

GrandHaven.1052:

Oh look… They have moved on from Turret Engi noobstomp to the next noobstomp complaint. Yay!

Lol, indeed!

mistsim.2748:

Durzlla.6295:

I’d really like to see them merge Hide in Plain Sight with Soften the Fall, at least that way the fall damage trait will be useful outside of reducing fall damage.

This is a horrible idea. Stealth needs to proc when we’re in trouble or when we need to be offensive, not when we’re taking fall damage.

I don’t think that was what Durzlla meant, but rather that the two traits works as they do now, but combined into one.

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

Healer’s Celerity: Grant swiftness (15s/18s) to yourself and your ally when you revive them. Increased revive speed.

That trait is also bad. Swiftness oh great!

Would never take that trait.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Instictual bond is awesome and should stay. Easily the best of all, also it’s not a revival trait it’s a downed state trait, different story.

That spike trap needs to go, either to be replaced with something that makes sense or just non reviving related trait that makes sense.

And what is awesome about this?

Jaguar+F2+ instinctual bond, or maybe even signet of the wild if enlargement was traited or you popped it before being downed. Damage is sick.

Well lucky you if all those things are saved for you when going down.

Wondering, if you swap pets when downed, instinctual bond is wasted, right?

I don’t think it’s a good trait at all. It may save you on occasion, but most of the time I’d say you won’t even notice it.

Durzlla.6295:

People keep raging about the spirit change, but it’s apparent you didn’t listen to what they said when they mentioned this. They said that they wanted spirits to be immobile so they could be a support version of area denial. They went on to mention how they want them to essentially be the support version of spirits, in other words, you put the spirit down and if there’s a fight near it your enemy is going to get ROCKED unless they get the spirit out of there.

If they follow through with this style (which i’ve been pushing for since beta since this is how spirits worked in GW1), I’ll be ecstatic. And judging from how well the other changes are, I have high hopes that they’ll actually follow through. However, the spirit active effects better be ground targeted if they’re not moving, because as they are now they’re garbage.

Also, Natures Vengeance is still a horrible GM trait, that kitten needs to be buffed.

I think they could remove the actives of the spirits tbh, and instead make their passives worth it alone. More like GW1 spirits. Also, if they’re not mobile, increase their range or reduce cd on them so we can use them more frequently.

I wonder why all our condi cleanse traits have to be GM traits to begin with? Also, I really think there could be a trait in the BM line that clears x condis upon pet swap or something.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

mistsim.2748:

All spirits will have a base 75% proc chance and maul will never ever become a blast finisher because it would be OP on such a short CD. So I would cross those two off.

I submit, for your perusal, this skill. Mighty Blow it is a blast finisher on a 5 second CD, 1s less than Maul.

Owned! :-)

It’s just another one of those traits noone uses. Let’s hope they remove it, boosts it or merges it with another trait. When they’re making this huge overhaul of the system, they simply can’t leave useless traits like this in the game.

Sunshine.5014:

OGDeadHead.8326:

Maybe the can get rid of amulets and let people put points into the stats they want instead.

Imagine getting a backstabbing from a thief with max power, from stealth.

Imagine fighting a 500 vit, 2000 healing guardian on the point, and suddenly see a 1500 burning tick per second from a max condi necro, with chain fear and bleed and chill.

No thanks, I rather have the enemies with non-extreme builds. Extreme bunkers are not fun to watch/played against. Extreme zerkers are not fun to watch/played against. I honestly think celestial is a good thing for this game. If anything, cele engi is still a bit too bunky. I’ll take the cele meta over the old bunker condi meta without hesitation.

Allowing people to customize their stats freely will undoubtedly surface the bunker meta again, since no one wants to be one shotted by a zerkers thief from stealth.

Of course there should be a limitation in place in regards to how many points you can place in a specific stat.

I wonder what they did about the 1500 range though… maybe base on longbow now?